BRIEFING: LPDs are used to transport and land Marines, their
equipment and supplies by embarked air cushion or conventional landing craft or amphibious assault vehicles, augmented
by helicopters or vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft. These
ships support amphibious assault, special operations or
expeditionary warfare missions and can serve as secondary
aviation platforms for expeditionary strike groups.

Austin-class LPDs have been retired from amphibious
warfare roles, replaced by new San Antonio-class LPDs. Ponce
was to be decommissioned in March 2012, but instead was
converted into an Afloat Forward Staging Base (Interim) (see
page 30). Denver, the last of 12 Austin-class LPDs, was decommissioned on Aug. 14, 2014.

San Antonio, the lead ship of its class, was commissioned
Jan. 14, 2006, and deployed for the first time on Aug. 28,
2008. New York’s bow stem was cast in 2003 using 7. 5 tons
of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center following the
9/11 terrorist attacks. The Navy named the eighth and ninth
ships of the class — Arlington and Somerset — in honor of the
victims of the attacks on the Pentagon and United Flight 93,
respectively. Arlington and Somerset also incorporate materials
salvaged from those sites.

Somerset, commissioned on April 1, 2014, was the last ship
to be built at Huntington Ingalls Industries Avondale Shipyard
near New Orleans. A contract to build LPD 27 was awarded
to Huntington on July 27, 2012. Long-lead funds have been
approved for a 12th ship, LPD 28.

Green Bay shifted homeport from San Diego to Sasebo,
Japan, in 2015. San Antonio launched AH-1W helicopters in
combat against Islamic State forces in Libya in late 2016
during Operation Odyssey Dawn.